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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what year does Rushdie note having first read One Hundred Years of Solitude?
(a) 1974.
(b) 1972.
(c) 1973.
(d) 1975.

2. Of which of the following was Shah Zaman ruler?
(a) Kashgar.
(b) Abyssinia.
(c) Samarkand.
(d) Ethiopia.

3. To which of the following does Rushdie report his parents moved?
(a) Rajkot.
(b) Karachi.
(c) Islamabad.
(d) Lahore.

4. In what year does Rushdie note having first read Slaughterhouse-Five?
(a) 1973.
(b) 1971.
(c) 1974.
(d) 1972.

5. To which of the following does Rushdie compare himself?
(a) Martin Amis.
(b) John Updike.
(c) Adam Bellow.
(d) Saul Bellow.

Short Answer Questions

1. What meaning is ascribed to the name Scheherazade?

2. At which of the following universities did Rushdie study?

3. Which of the following authors does Rushdie note having read?

4. In which city was Vonnegut imprisoned?

5. Which of the following does Rushdie report being among his father’s library?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reason does Carlos Fuentes remark that Latin American writers hesitate to use the word “solitude”?

2. What is the central conceit of Now It Can Be Told?

3. Why does Rushdie note it took him so long to write his second published novel as it did?

4. To what does the “Lakshman rekha” refer?

5. Why does Rushdie assert that visitors to New York City feel they know it when they arrive there?

6. What does Rushdie note struck him most on his first reading of Portnoy’s Complaint?

7. What does Rushdie assert that falling in love with stories awakens in children?

8. What idea about Shakespeare does Rushdie ascribe to Howard Brenton?

9. Why does Rushdie note that the Philip Roth Lecture he gives takes Roth as its topic?

10. What does Rushdie note was his first attraction to Thousand Nights and One Night?

(see the answer keys)

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